Month: November 2016

There are many people that say a person in poverty or in need of welfare need to be self-sufficient. That welfare teaches people not to take care of myself. As a general; tenant, take care of yourself is the way to live your life. However, I think people that hold these beliefs do not take the time to consider if they would do so in the same boat. If they have done so.

Life is too random. A big part of who people are is what happens to them. Events have consequences that reinforce a behavior or causes a negative reinforcement. It causes a behavior to avoid something. Two similar people with all the advantages- intact family, good school, financially secure- may have drastic lives. One person works hard and helps people because they see the result. The other person becomes spoiled and leaches on society. That person bums around and treats people poorly (see recent college kids raping cases).

Two similar people in the projects with a single parent. One person, let’s make them female. Gets pregnant, doesn’t finish high school and goes on welfare. She doesn’t dream of that life, but it is not a big deal. She goes with the flow. However, there is another young girl. She sees what is around her and works hard to go to college and move out of the projects. This is the person we do not hear about as much.

So what send these people in different directions. Interpretations of events. Random events. One person is praised for something. Perhaps another gets away with something. Good parents play a role. But things happen. You cannot predict what will happen or a persons reaction to it.

So we need to give people all the advantages we can. We need safety nets. We need social workers. We need food programs so that children do not go hungry.

Know your characters. Of course. However, here is the best advice I’ve seen on why you need to and how to get your audience to know you characters–without exposition. A must read-

We’re closing in on the end of National Novel Writing Month. Many writers are stuck in the saggy middle. Many don’t know how to end. Some still don’t know where to start. I’ve heard complaints from friends: I don’t know where to start. I don’t know what to write next. I’ve hit a wall. I’m […]

There are many people that say a person in poverty or in need of welfare need to be self-sufficient. That welfare teaches people not to take care of myself. As a general; tenant, take care of yourself is the way to live your life. However, I think people that hold these beliefs do not take the time to consider if they would do so in the same boat. If they have done so.

Life is too random. A big part of who people are is what happens to them. Events have consequences that reinforce a behavior or causes a negative reinforcement. It causes a behavior to avoid something. Two similar people with all the advanatages- intact family, good school, financially secure- may have drastic lives. One person works hard and helps people because they see the result. The other person becomes spoiled and leaches on society. That person bums around and treats people poorly (see recent college kids raping cases).

Two similar people in the projects with a single parent. One person, let’s make them female. Gets pregnant, doesn’t finish high school and goes on welfare. She doesn’t dream of that life, but it is not a big deal. She goes with the flow. However, there is another young girl. She sees what is around her and works hard to go to college and move out of the projects. This is the person we do not hear about as much.

So what send these people in different directions. Interpretations of events. Random events. One person is praised for something. Perhaps another gets away with something. Good parents play a role. But things happen. You cannot predict what will happen or a persons reaction to it.

So we need to give people all the advantages we can. We need safety nets. We need social workers. We need food programs so that children do not go hungry.

I do not want to be controversial. I am not for abortions. I have respect for people against abortions. Yet I am compelled to share my thoughts on the subject.

If trump succeeds in his promise to make abortions illegal, there will in fact be more abortions. The people that want to get rid of it do not want to look at the bigger picture. That there are not simple answers.

Of course, there is the argument of wrong is wrong. I wish abortion was not a reality. It is though. In the same way, Christians believed the Bible, but killed native Americans for their land and hung black men for being uppity. God-fearing men drag homosexuals to their deaths. Jesus was born in a time of a lot of wars. How hard to he rail against it? Need I find Bible verses stating good times to kill people and we do not follow them?

Make it illegal and then what? Arrest any doctor that performs it? Our prosecuting attorneys and court system are already overworked. Will it be able to file charges on the doctors. Many many people will still want abortions. Will these communities go after them? No. But they will not need to.

What will the prochoice people do with all their time and money. Probably fight to get abortions legal again. However, they will also set up a system to help out women. Money to help them go out of country to where abortions are legal.

I believe that a whole economy will be set up. American doctors will go to Mexico to get rich. Women will take abortion vacations. Go down to a warm destination.

Of course, that is for the women in well-to-do households. Poor women will have to go back to coat hangers. Just as bad will be the black market. Abortions will be the new marijuana. Illegal, but common place.

Setting aside the argument that abortions are just the beginning of controlling women’s bodies (which we shouldn’t, because people do want to do that), women will have less control. Young females, especially may decide just not to have sex. Some will then abstain and that is good. Many, however, will not prepare themselves for sex, but then they will get into a situation where they need contraceptives.

They won’t have them. Sometimes a baby will happen. Sometimes an abortion will happen.

Those that do get pregnant will then try to hide their pregnancy for as long as possible. Avoiding prenatal care while they figure out what to do or hope for a miscarriage. And what of miscarrgaiges. Will a hearing have to be held to determine if a woman had a miscarriage or an abortion. Will she be found guilty and face jailtime? There has to be a deterrent, right?

Will there need to be a hearing for a woman claiming rape? Won’t a woman have to go to court to prove that she did not deserve the kid inside of her. If the answer is yes, then what a terrible thing. If the answer is no, a doctor can just sign off and say he performed an abortion because the woman was raped. There’s the loophole to keep it legal. Then all those young women that are not on contraception and get pregnant have a way to get an abortion.

This is a stretch, but what if people stopped fighting Roe V Wade? Pro Choice people are passionate about women. I believe they would turn their focus to helping women and abortions are traumatic. Prolife people could spend their money on helping them as well. Fund adoptions instead of church picnics.

Prochoice candidates would not give speeches about it. The abortion message would not be so prevalent. Without pressure from both sides, I think most young women would choose adoption.

If we want to fix the problem of unarmed black men being shot by police, we must do more than fight racism. There are racists police. There are racist people in every profession. Police officers have to deal with things on a daily basis that almost all of us could not deal with. They do it for society.

However, their main goal is to get home alive each day. They are trained for the situation of what to do if they feel threatened. That is to shoot and shoot to kill. People have to realize that and acknowledge the danger of appearing dangerous.

This is not to blame the black men either. Anger of how they are treated is justified. The problem comes from prejudice.

However, the most prejudiced police officer does not want to shoot a black man. Even if they are confident that they will be exonerated, life as they know it is over.

That is not to say that there is not a problem. It begins with bias. Recently I heard Paul Bloom on the Art of Charm discuss empathy and bias. He described how babies like people similar to them and are against those different. It is a survival technique engrained in animals and humans. However, it does not work in modern times.

So combine this with learned bias. Society, statistics, and a large variety of things tell us that a black male is dangerous. Now Bloom talked about how with adrenaline our bodies revert to depending on bias.

So in a dangerous situation, a police officer feels the need to kill so that the self and others are not killed. They train to do so. I believe it needs to be that way.

We must identify this bias. Police officers and minorities. We need to teach people to respect the police. Even more important, we need to change the culture of the police so that minorities do not have rightful resentment towards being targeted and stopped more than white people.

We need to get rid of what divides us. This means, ultimately, socioeconomic factors. As separate races and as a whole, we are not doing enough.

This all begins with not looking for the easy answer and someone to blame. That is all too many people are doing on both sides. Lets look to cities that are successful and mimic what they do.

In Nick Offerman’s book, Paddle Your Own Canoe, he talks about the importance of getting away from screens (TV, video games, Smart phones). He relates that you need a leisure activity that is actually creating something.

I was reflecting on that when I looked over at my fan blowing in me. it is a vintage fan with metal blades. I got it because I always loved our box fan growing up. Mostly because I think I was born nostalgic, but I liked that it was the fan we always had.

And I remember when it began to need to be started like an old prop plane. And eventually it did stop working. Now I tried to coax it back to life. Probably through scrapping the oil dust off of it with a butter knife and applying more oil.

Today, as a kid, I could actually google how to fix a fan. In fact I paused and did so. However, would I if i was a kid today? I doubt it. There is too much to watch on NetFlix and too cool of video games. Today most likely I would not have grown up on a farm and would not have learned the value of fixing something.

Review-

Nick Offerman’s Paddle Your Own Canoe is pretty much what you’d expect from Nick/ Ron Swanson. Yet that does not mean don’t read it. In fact, I highly recommend it It is funny and well-written. He gives you exactly what you want from a biography- details of his life and his journey. It is also part self-help book.